#menstrual-hygiene

#menstrual-hygiene

Growing up in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to Pakistan's capital Islamabad, Mahnoor Omer remembers the shame and anxiety she felt in school when she had periods. Going to the toilet with a sanitary pad was an act of stealth, like trying to cover up a crime. I used to hide my pad up my sleeve like I was taking narcotics to the bathroom, says Omer, who comes from a middle-class family her father a businessman and her mother a homemaker.

In the Islamic tradition, menstruation enters the discourse as a determinant of rite and ritual. The Quran dictates that menstruating women are relieved of the obligation to fast in Ramadan or perform the five prescribed daily prayers.